Western Union SME FX Tool Goes Cross-Border (Again)

It’s only been a few months since Western Union Business Solutions rolled out EDGE, a cross-border payments platform for SMEs, but the firm is already expanding the tool.

The company announced today (July 18) that EDGE is expanding into Hong Kong, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic. At the same time, WU Business Solutions said the firm will introduce a new feature for EDGE that enables cross-border payments without fees, expanding it to 51 currencies across 13 countries.

“Since the launch of the WU EDGE platform, businesses across the world have used the platform to support their aspirations to grow, invest and deliver the jobs of the future,” said Kerry Agiasotis, president of Western Union Business Solutions, in a statement. “We are very proud of today’s announcement; we view ourselves as business partners to our SME customers.”

The WU EDGE platform enables international payments and provides a portal through which SMEs can connect with each other. The firm added that it enables businesses to unify their accounts payable, accounts receivable, invoice processing and other B2B finance processes.

Western Union Business Solutions has targeted the FX strategies and international business needs of SMEs as of late. Earlier this year, the company released new data from research that examined small business’ currency strategies.

The company concluded that a strengthening U.S. dollar and an increased global outlook are challenging companies to mitigate FX risk.

“These currency conditions are a fundamental aspect of business planning to manage exposures to both large economies, like China and India, or smaller ones, such as Greece,” said WU Business Solutions North America Managing Director Scott Smith in a statement at the time the research was released. “Small businesses’ sensitivity to commodity pricing highlights the delicate nature of this segment’s profitability, which can be offset by payment strategies, such as currency hedging.”